Leaving Home
by thezombiecoma
Summary: She's heading to the Pegasus Galaxy.... and leaving home.


**_Title: Leaving Home_**

Fandom: Stargate Atlantis

Pairings: None so far

Rating: PG

Warnings: None so far

Disclaimer: Grace is mine. Everything else gets to play in my world until I'm done with them. And they belong to MGM.

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Never. The word echoed in her head just as loudly as it had three weeks earlier. Never was a long time. Never involved more than time. Never involved experiences as well.

Three weeks. Her entire live had been finished in three weeks. That's when she had been approached by what she'd dubbed "the men in black". They had presented her with an opportunity so fantastical, she would have been an utter imbecile to turn it down.

Everyone in the archeological field knew of her dedication to exploring other cultures. There was no where she wouldn't go. Now she was going to conquer the final frontier and she couldn't tell anyone about it.

She shook her head. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, she was heading to parts unknown in South America. She'd been researching the lost city of Atlantis and its rumored tie to modern day Ireland. Until the men in black arrived.

The plan was to wait five weeks and then announce her unfortunate demise at the hands of rebel insurgents. She suspected that the reason her government had chosen that particular continent was so that with her "death", there would be an excuse to go in and eradicate what amounted to no more than a minor terrorist group.

She sighed and looked around her nearly empty apartment. She didn't think it looked that much different than before. She'd always been on the move and while she'd aquired several rare artifacts and many more minor keepsakes, none of it meant much in light of the fact that she was going to be leaving it all behind.

"Grace, you in here?"

Wiping the stray tear from her eye, Grace cleared her throat and called back, "In here, Jill." Jill Breckenridge walked into the room.

"What are you doing, moping about?" she asked. Grace sighed.

"Oh, you know. This expedition is going to be longer than usual. She shrugged. "Its just so strange, putting all your stuff into storage."

Grace had been given a list of things she was required to bring. She had been told one suitcase and one trunk. They expected her to leave her life behind and everything that she had chosen to represent that life had to fit into a Samsonite and a $29.99 trunk she bought at K-Mart. Unreal.

Jill picked up Grace's favorite silk pantsuit. She eyed it and then slid her gaze to Grace.

"Take it," Grace said, rolling her eyes.

Grinning like someone who'd just won the lottery, Jill hugged the soft material to her chest.

"If anything happens to you, your will better state that I get all the awesome clothes," Jill joked.

Grace paused. Even though Jill was joking, it still felt strange. In five weeks, she _would _be dead, at least to Jill. She turned and smiled brightly, hoping to draw attention away from her complexion, which had visibly paled at her friend's comment.

"Of course!" She rolled her eyes again, for effect. "In fact, why not spare you the trouble of locating my will. Take a bunch of it now."

Jill looked horrified.

"I'm sorry, Gracie, I didn't mean it like that."

Grace felt horrible. Apparently, she wasn't going to be winning any Academy Awards anytime soon. She reached out and tackled her friend to the bed in a hug.

"Sweetie, I'm just kidding, really. Take the clothes. They're just going to be sitting in storage, anyway. It's like a whole new wardrobe with none of the cost." She nuzzled her friend and giggled. "Now you can have something decent to wear if Bagel Guy ever asks you out."

Jill sat up in a mock huff.

"Hey! That's not right. I have clothes," she said as she hopped up and went to the closet. "Just not a gorgeous Prada cocktail dress like _this _one." She turned her cheesy grin back on Grace.

Grace laughed loudly. "Take it!" she shouted while giggling.

The girls spent the next 3 hours going through all the clothes in Grace's closet. That which Jill didn't take, Grace made a mental note to donate before she left. Now came the hard part. Getting rid of her friend while she packed. It was bad enough that she was leaving in 4 days. She wanted to spend every minute possible with the people she'd never see again, but would always think about. She picked up her camera.

"Hey, sillygirl, SMILE!" She snapped the photo as Jill posed in an exaggerated manner, sprawling across the bed. She grinned.

"Now, get out while I pack. I need to blast the music and zone out. Concentrate. Git." Grace playfully shoved her friend out the front door, shut it and started crying.

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A/N: Let me know what you think.


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